Let’s go to central Wisconsin to visit Mosinee, WI in Marathon County!
Traditionally, this area was inhabited by the Ojibwe, the Menominee, and the Potawatomi. (Side note: want to see a history of Indigenous land anywhere in the world? Check out native-land.ca and search!). All three Native Nations ceded their territory between 1833 and 1837. Shortly thereafter, the area’s first sawmill was established and Mosinee, along with many other towns in the Wausau area, became a lumber and then a paper town.
Joseph Dessert, a Canadian settler, moved to Mosinee in 1844 and later built the community’s popular free library. The library opened in 1899. Now part of the Marathon County Public Library (MCPL) as the Mosinee branch, the library has been used as a library, a post office, village hall, and school. The library building is now on the National and State Registers of Historic Places; read more at the Wisconsin Historical Society website.
Mosinee Paper Company Mill, 1950. Mill of the Mosinee Paper Company at Mosinee, was served by the Milwaukee Road and its own switching railroad (left).
Mosinee Dam, 1920. Photograph showing a dam on the Wisconsin River at Mosinee, Wisconsin. Bridges, homes and other buildings are visible in the background.
Marathon County Public Library – Mosinee Branch (Joseph Desert [sic] Branch), 1992. Marathon County Public Library – Mosinee Branch (Joseph Desert [sic] Branch). Color photograph shows the west side of this brick building which is on the National Registry of Historical Buildings.
Oleson School-Town of Mosinee, Marathon County, WI, 1949. Oleson School-Town of Mosinee, Marathon County, WI. According to the 1943 Marathon County Schools Map District #3 Oleson School was located in section 3, Township 27 N. Range 6 E. According to a Wausau Record Herald article the school was named for John Oleson. He was “an early-day farmer living in the vicinity of the present Oleson school in the town of Mosinee–(he) boarded most of the pioneer teachers of the school–.”
Pulp logs, 1954. A Mosinee paper mill truck is bringing in a load of thinnings from the company’s jack pine stands. On the right are peeled posts. The peeled posts are sent to a creosoting plant at Superior.
Depot, Mosinee, Wisconsin, ca. 1900-1919. Station crew loads the baggage truck at Mosinee.
![Marathon County Public Library - Mosinee Branch (Joseph Desert [sic] Branch), 1992.](https://recollectionwisconsin.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/mosinee-library1-1024x475.png)
